Twenty somethings unite!

As a kid, when Friday rolled around, most kids would excitedly scream and run out of school. They’d cheer at the possibilities their weekend would hold. A sleepover? Cheering for the basketball team? Dinner with friends? Oh sure, I would smile and join in the excitement, but then I’d be brought back to reality the moment I walked through the door of my house. You see, when I was younger, my mom always had this rule on Friday nights: You can’t go anywhere until your bathroom is clean. I’d piddle around to try to put off the inevitable. I’d whine about having to do chores when, “nobody else has to!” I remember doing this elementary through high school. My mom and I would battle about this stupid, mundane chore that I hated doing week after week. You have to know one thing about my mom though; she loves to clean. I was never that kid with a messy room. I had to make my bed every day and everything I owned had its place in my room. Usually when I came home from school on Fridays and started to makes excuses to get out of cleaning, my mom already had her old volleyball knee pads on and was busy scrubbing the kitchen floor. I remember hanging out in my friends’ rooms and being jealous of their mess. They’d have makeup laying out, magazines and pictures strewn around the floor, and clothes lying on their bed. It was normal to them and foreign to me.

Flash forward to today. I’m 25 and own a home with my husband. Prior to being married, we’d never lived together. I’m sure he imagined a wonderful wife who would keep the house sparkling clean and would have freshly cut flowers standing tall on our dining room table. Poor guy. He had no idea what was coming. Turns out when my mom doesn’t make me clean before I can go out…. I just don’t clean at all. Go ahead, make your judgements about me. I like to think I’m just being rebellious at this point in my life. Nobody is making me clean. Nobody is riding me about the soap scum in the shower. Nobody is yelling up the stairs, “Be sure that bed is made young lady!” So guess what? It’s just not getting cleaned. I despise doing the dishes. I scoff at taking care of the laundry. I cringe at scrubbing the floor. But most of all, I loath cleaning the shower. I believe it’s just me saying, “I’m a grown up now and you can’t make me.” (Sticks out tongue)

Today however, my husband placed a laundry basket in front me as I woke up from my Sunday nap. “Got a little job for ya!” he said in his usual chipper way. Of course I knew he’d probably end up folding the laundry, but for the first time in 2.5 years I felt this unusual feeling. A feeling of guilt. I should help out more with the cleaning. I need to give up my feminist way of thinking. Just because I put some laundry in or unload the dishwasher, it doesn’t make me a 1950’s housewife. It makes me a partner in my marriage. So today I folded laundry, made dinner, washed dishes and… wait for it… cleaned the bathroom, shower included. Together, my hubbie and I made our house shine like new. Now, we’re sitting together in bed watching the Academy Awards. He’s reading a book while I furiously blog about cleanliness. We both have this sense of contentment and calmness as we gaze over our freshly vacuumed carpet. As much as I hate to admit it, my mom was right. A clean house is the way to go. I think I’m over the halfway to 50 shock of being a first time home owner and wife. I think it’s time I stop enjoying the fact that nobody is making me do anything and start doing it because I want to. Who knows? Maybe someday I’ll make my kids clean before they can go anywhere on a Friday night.

As someone who married her high school sweetheart, I’d like to think I know a little something about being in love. I’m not an expert on love, but I believe I’ve learned a few signs that show its true love between you and that special someone. Even though I’ve been in love for 11 years, the kind of love we share has evolved over time. You can and should fall in love again and again with that special someone. This happens because the love you share changes as you grow together. In my case, it changed when we learned how to drive, when we graduated, when we entered college, when we got engaged, when we got married, and then as we’ve shared our life together over the past couple of years. The following, in my experience, are the top 10 ways you know it’s love…

10. You share the last piece of… anything!

If there is one piece of bread left in the basket at a restaurant, neither of us will just grab it and scarf it. Instead, one of us takes it, breaks it in half, and the other person gets to choose which half they want. Silly? Maybe. But I feel it’s so important to still share with each other, no matter how long you’ve been together.

9. You feel comfortable announcing that you are going to the bathroom and say exactly what you’ll be doing in there.

I know, I know. This may seem nasty to some people, but once you get to know someone really well and then live with them, this becomes second nature. Often times it isn’t necessary, but it just comes out like word vomit. I couldn’t fathom announcing that he should “stay clear of the bathroom for a few minutes” when we were dating. Now, I feel like its common courtesy to give him a heads up to avoid an unwelcome surprise. That’s love.

8. He’ll accompany you, no matter where you’re going.

Whether it’s your parents’ house or a spin at the Gap. Someone who really loves you will go with you. Although my husband frantically searches for a chair the moment we step into the Gap, it is important to note that he is there! He hates shopping, but will go with me because he loves me. He’ll drag his feet through Express and The Loft and happily answer me when I burst out of the dressing room saying, “How does this look?” Ok, so he doesn’t happily answer. He’s usually rubbing his forehead and bouncing his knee nervously. BUT, he’s there. For me!

7. He learns to love chick flicks!

Although resistant at first, my husband has come to not only tolerate, but enjoy movies like How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Serendipity, and The Holiday. I don’t think the story line is what draws him in, I think it’s knowing that it makes me happy to watch these movies together. It probably doesn’t hurt to watch Kate Hudson and Jennifer Aniston in all their glory, but again, I like to think it’s because he loves me!

6. He doesn’t judge you based on your music, clothing, TV, or food choices.

I can be scarfing down peanut butter M&M’s by the handful in my two inches too short pajama pants, while watching Teen Mom and my adoring husband doesn’t even flinch. This probably isn’t the picture he had in his mind of me when we began dating, but once you live with someone, that kind of goes out the window. Being in love means you can be yourself in front of your husband. But keep in mind, this means I must also be accepting of the nearly see-through sweatpants he’s had since college and obsession with Captain Crunch cereal. Which I am. Usually.

5. He calls you back when you’re upset.

We’ve all been there. You get in an argument with your significant other. Your voice gets shaky and you don’t want to get upset in front of him. So you insist everything is fine, hang up the phone and cry. If he loves you, he’ll call you back and make sure you’re happy before you go to sleep. This happened while we dated in high school, college, and now as we’re married. My husband travels for work sometimes so we still use the phone often to communicate. He will absolutely not let me go to bed upset. The same goes when we’re home together. We do not go to bed upset. That is true love.

4. He still manages to smile and laugh as you belt out terrible karaoke.

After a few drinks, I like to sing karaoke (see previous post.) I’ve been known to sing Vanilla Ice, Sir Mix-A-Lot, and Britney Spears after consuming a few adult beverages. Only a man in love will watch and crack up at a tipsy girl’s rendition of Baby Got Back and then hug her after she’s done.

3. He’ll write you love notes and you’ll write back.

I went to high school about 8 years ago. There was no texting (hard to believe!!) If my husband (my boyfriend at the time) wanted to say “hey” or “I love you” he did it through a note. We were young, but so in love. He wasn’t too proud to write his feelings in a note and that’s what made me love him. Want to know the crazy thing? I still have every single note he ever wrote me 🙂

2. No time to shave your legs? No problem!

I’ve only been married a couple of years, but it’s wonderful to not worry about having perfectly smooth legs at all times. I used to feel that way. Now don’t get me wrong, I haven’t let myself go or fallen apart completely, but sometimes it’s just a pain in the ass to shave your legs! Having a husband who loves me regardless, makes me less self-conscious about my leg stubble. Gotta love marriage!

1. He’ll hold your hand in the car, church, Target, or in bed.

My guy’s a hand holder. At first it was in the halls of our high school. Then it was throughout campus on the way to class. Now it’s while we sit in church or watch TV in bed at night. I wasn’t much of a hand holder until he came along, but it turns out to be a great way to show someone you’re in love. Ever since we were 16 he’s held my hand in the car. There’s something so simple and so sweet about hand holding. I hope it never ends. I can already see us in our motorized wheel chairs cruising the halls of our retirement home hand in hand. Sigh.

Happy Valentines Day to all of the couples who are in love and to those seeking love. It’s an amazing feeling that I hope everyone gets to experience at some point in their life!

I swear we teachers work all year for one coveted reason: The snow day. If you teach in the midwest you’re almost guaranteed one of these throughout the winter. Today, February 2nd, was our first snow day.

One very snowy day!

It started with us dismissing students early yesterday. I got home around 3:00 and immediately grabbed a Diet Coke, made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, put on sweat pants, and plopped down on the couch. Sigh. This is what I’ve been waiting for. I couldn’t wait to watch Oprah for the first time since August and veg out on my comfy couch.

I did this for about 3 hours. I surfed Facebook, read blogs, attempted some graduate homework, and called my mom to wish her a happy birthday. The only reason I got up from the couch around 6:00 was to eat. I heated up some leftover pizza and plopped back down on the couch. This pizza was especially delicious because I did not go to the gym today. I usually go 3-4 times per week and happily missed today because of the deteriorating road conditions (and they cancelled my class.) For some reason, crappy food tastes so much better if you haven’t worked out. I tend to feel guilty if I cram tasty high-calorie food into my mouth directly following a sweaty cardio blast. But not today. Today the pizza tasted magical!

I continued with my evening by watching Beverly Hills Housewives Reunion and Teen Mom 2. What a great evening! Although I didn’t exert much energy all evening, I still managed to fall asleep quickly. I slept in this morning until multiple snowblowers woke me up. What is it with men and snowblowers? Do snowblowers not work as well after 10:00 in the morning?

This morning I walked into the living room and noticed my butt imprint in the couch from yesterday. I happily settled back into my place and put my feet up. My plans for the day include TV, cleaning, graduate homework, and eating. I got to thinking, how did I spend my snow days when I was a kid?

If I was 10 instead of halfway to 50, I would have woken up 3 hours earlier, gobbled up some Frosted Flakes and got dressed to go outside. I would have called all my neighborhood friends and met them on the hill for sledding. We would have come home for food and water and gone back out.

Now…. I stare out the window at the blustery conditions and shiver. You could not pay me to go out there. Even if I had no food in the house, I think I would start eating couch cushions before I would venture out for food. Oh how the times have changed.

I’m open to suggestions on how to spend my snow day today. If you’re also enjoying one, tell me what you’ll be doing. If you are longing for a snow day, tell me how you’d spend it. Lord knows I’ll have time today to check your responses frequently!